Confident Bartell ready to roll for Rams

Sunday

Jul 29, 2007 at 12:01 AMJul 29, 2007 at 2:53 PM

Pilger column from Rams camp in St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS — Ron Bartell talks a good game. About halfway through last season, he also began playing one.

The third-year Rams cornerback, a second-round draft pick out of Howard University in 2005, played in all 16 games last season but started seeing additional playing time about midway through the 8-8 campaign.

He really began to excel in the last three games, when he made three interceptions, seven of his 17 tackles and scored a touchdown on a 38-yard interception return in the season finale — a 41-21 win over Minnesota. The Rams won all three of those games, also beating Oakland 20-0 and Washington 37-31 to avoid a losing record in the regular season.

Entering training camp this year, Bartell was listed as the No. 2 right cornerback behind starter Fakhir Brown. But Brown won’t able to play in the Rams’ first four games this season after being suspended by the NFL for violating the league’s policy on banned substances.

Suddenly, Bartell’s the man. It appears to be his starting position to lose, at least for the first month of the season.

A lack of confidence will not be one of Bartell’s biggest problems in keeping it.

“My whole goal was to come in and take somebody’s job, so it wasn’t really a big deal to me,” Bartell said Saturday after the Rams’ third training session. “It’s an unfortunate situation; it’s playing itself out that way, but I still have a job to do, so that’s really none of my concern right now.”

Bartell says he became more comfortable playing last season simply because of getting more playing time.

“Just having an opportunity,” he said. “The opportunity comes in many different forms. I was in that nickel (defensive package); then I got moved to safety and really didn’t get to play any. So just having the opportunity to play one position is really nice. And that position is really a big deal for me.

“That’s where I was drafted at, so, yeah, I’m happy at corner,” Bartell added. “I could always play safety if need be, but right now I would prefer to play corner. But wherever they need me I’m willing to play.”

It’s no secret the Rams are looking for ways to be more effective against the run. And Bartell loves physical play.

“I enjoy nickel a lot; you get to be a lot more physical in nickel, blitz a lot more, make a lot more plays on defense,” he said. “Nickel is a big part of the defense and I love the responsibility. My size (6 feet 1, 205 pounds) and my speed are assets.

“I think Coach (Jim) Haslett (defensive cooradinator) is going to see that, so they’re going to use me to the best of my ability.”
Bartell concedes he is better prepared to use his “assets” now than he was at this time last year.

“I’m a lot more prepared,” he said. “Just the way my career has gone. Like my rookie year, I started off slow, then I ended up starting eight (actually seven) games. That gave me a lot more experience.

“Last year I started as a special teams backup, and being thrust into a nickel role and being able to play it as I did at the end of the season, I think, has kind of prepared me for this point. So now, I’m just ready to take advantage of it.”

On Friday, coach Scott Linehan expressed optimism that the Rams will do a much better job against the run this season than last, when they finished a dismal 31st in the league in that category. Linehan talked about using different defensive schemes. Bartell said the Rams defenders already know what needs to be done.

“I don’t think we need to talk about it, we just need to go out and do it,” he said. “We all know what we need to do. We weren’t that great against the run last year — no matter how you want to discuss what needs to be done, we all know what needs to get done around here to get to the next level. So we’ll just work on doing it.

“And I think our secondary is one of the better ones you’re probably going to see around here in a while. We’ve got a good group of guys around here.”

The proof will be how good those guys are out there — in the regular season.

Hal Pilger can be reached at 788-1548 or hal.pilger@sj-r.com.

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